Friday, August 31, 2012

(National Review/The Corner) Clint is a brilliant actor,
and a superb director of other actors (and I don’t just mean a
quarter-century ago: In the last five years, he’s made eight films).
He’s also, as Mr Gavin observed, a terrific jazz improviser at the piano
— and, in film and music documentaries, an extremely articulate
interviewee. So I wouldn’t assume that the general tenor of his
performance wasn’t exactly as he intended. The hair was a clue: No
Hollywood icon goes out on stage like that unless he means to.

The intended recipient was not Mitt Romney, the convention
delegates, or even Republican voters, but rather wavering independents.
Clint was there to tell them it’s OK to find Obama, his ugly campaign
operation, and his increasingly shrill band of die-hard defenders
ridiculous. It’s OK to laugh at them.

I’m not sure he could have pulled that off if he’d delivered a slick
telepromptered pitch. As Mr. Hayward suggests, the hard lines packed
more of a punch for being delivered in the midst of a Bob Newhart
empty-chair shtick from the Dean Martin show circa 1968. Indeed, they
were some of the hardest lines of the convention and may well prove the
take-home (“We own this country . . . Politicians are employees of ours .
. . And when somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let them go”),
but they seemed more effective for appearing to emerge extemporaneously
from the general shambles.

The curse of political operatives is that they make everything the
same. A guy smoothly reading platitudinous codswallop while rotating his
head from the left-hand teleprompter to the right-hand teleprompter
like clockwork as if he’s at Centre Court watching the world’s slowest
Wimbledon rally is a very reductive idea of “professionalism.” Even
politicians you’re well disposed to come across as slick bores in that
format. Which is by way of saying Clint is too sharp and too crafty not
to have known what he was doing...

“How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can? But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death.”- Pope Benedict XVI

"This past Wednesday I was in part of the hospital that was devoted to people who have memory problems like my father. The people here may have no idea who I am but they light up at the sight of a collar. People who cannot carry on a conversation click “on” and join in prayer as if there were little wrong with them, their faces relaxing in this moment of peace amidst the chaos of illness."- Fr. Valencheck

"The priest's life is not his own. He does not live it for himself and his personal fulfillment, but for the salvation of souls."- Fr. Richtsteig

"I am convinced that if we simply follow the liturgical books, say the texts and carry out the gestures properly, in a style continuous with our tradition, the Church’s liturgy has power the capture minds and hearts and transform them.

I starting forming this conviction before I became a Catholic through my experience of Novus Ordo Masses done in an entirely Roman traditional style, closely following the books.

The late Msgr. Richard Schuler would eventually articulate to me in words what I was experiencing in the church. "Just do what the Council asked… do what the Church asks."

Why is worship well executed according to the mind of the Church so effective?

Christ is the true Actor in the sacred action of the Church’s worship. He makes our hands and voices His own as He raises our petitions and offerings to the Father for His glory and our salvation.

Christ’s Holy Church has determined the way by which we may have this encounter with mystery in the liturgy, be taken up in the sacred action.

Although we have the right to our Rite celebrated as the Church desires, liturgy is not about me or us or even you in the pews." - Fr. Zuhlsdorf

"After celebrating Mass facing the Lord I can report these favorable effects from the priest's point of view:

1. I don't have to worry about where to look
2. I don't have to worry about what my face looks like
3. I can weep at the beauty and wonder of it all without concern
4. I can worship more freely and fully
5. I feel more at one with the people of God
6. I am on a journey to God with the people
7. I am not the focus of attention
8. The elevation of the host and the Ecce Agnus Dei have become more of a focus
9. I feel more part of the great tradition
10. I can't see who's not paying attention and feel I have to do something to get their attention back." - Fr. Longenecker

"My rector in Denver, when he was a young priest, was eating dinner at his secretary's house, a widow from Sicily. Thinking he was polite he said, 'If you wish you can call me Michael.' She stopped, put her hand on her hip, and, pointing at him with her wooden spoon, said, 'Don't think I call you Father because I think you're better than me! I call you Father to remind you who you're supposed to be and how you're going to be judged by our Lord!' He passes that lesson on to all his seminarians."- Fr. Andrew

Decalogue Against Temptation

1. Do not forget that the devil exists.
2. Do not forget that the devil is a tempter.
3. Do not forget that the devil is very intelligent and astute.
4. Be vigilant concerning your eyes and heart. Be strong in spirit and virtue.
5. Believe firmly in the victory of Christ over the tempter.
6. Remember that Christ makes you a participant in His victory.
7. Listen carefully to the word of God.
8. Be humble and love mortification.
9. Pray without flagging.
10. Love the Lord your God and offer worship to Him only.